BCB President not convinced about Sri Lanka tour yet

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan said on Wednesday that they have adopted a wait-and-watch policy regarding resumption of cricket and suggested that ICC events are the first priority for Bangladesh and not bilateral series.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is yet to postpone their home series against India in June and the three-Test series against Bangladesh in July as they are hoping for a resumption of international cricket as early as June, considering the Covid-19 situation is comparatively better in their country. However, Nazmul was not convinced as the virus situation in a demographic could very easily change in a matter of days.

”A place is safe today but it might not be safe tomorrow, because the virus spreading is recurring. No one can tell when it will end or predict what the situation will be,” Nazmul told reporters at the National Sports Complex on Wednesday (May 20). ”Sri Lanka said that they want to host, but it does not only depend on their will right now. We have to take a lot of critical decisions. How the players will travel, where the players will be staying, will we be able to send them or not, so many questions need answers.

”How can we discuss? I can’t provide any possible dates like when we will start playing — in July or August,” he added. ”We have to see what the ICC does, ACC does. What other countries are doing. So far no one was able to tell when the match will start while giving dates. We will be first in this case, thinking like this is not right.”

All ICC stakeholders and affiliated member board’s representatives will meet up online on May 28 and the BCB boss suggested that rescheduling of ICC events will be the main focus of the meeting.

”Now the talks are about rescheduling the [Twenty20] World Cup. In this predicament it’s very hard to say something about bilateral series. I mean to say, we don’t even know when the ICC events will take place. We have to plan or schedule accordingly,” said Nazmul. “It’s a very complex task. But the situation is equal for everyone. We will try to keep as many series possible from the previous schedule,” he concluded.